Ikea is quickly gaining a reputation for becoming a place where you might want to think twice about dining. Not long after it pulled meatballs off its shelves in 13 countries because they were found to contain horsemeat, Ikea has pulled some almond cakes from all of its restaurants in 23 countries after a bacteria normally found in fecal matter was discovered them. Ugggghhh. Do we need to worry?

China, of all places, seems to have discovered this latest and grossest possible problem with Ikea food. It claims it destroyed 1800 cakes in December after authorities found high levels of coliform bacteria in them -- a bacteria that is often found in animal and human fecal matter.

China, which had a series of food scandals, is cracking down on its food standards, and says the Swedish cakes didn't pass muster. An Ikea spokeswoman says all of the cake in question was pulled and never made it to the store's restaurants worldwide.

There are indications that the levels of bacteria found are low but we obviously have to know the exact amount, and find out how this happened.

Yeah, you might want to get on that. Let us know about the horse meat too, while you're at it. A microbiologist told a French newspaper that this type of bacteria doesn't always come from fecal matter -- and that it's not harmful to people.

So ... if you've been eating almond cake at Ikea, I wouldn't stress. But the whole thing just puts a bad taste in your mouth, don't it? (Har!) Anyway, maybe Ikea needs to stick with furniture.

Does all of this gross food stuff freak you out?


Image via SlackerMark/Flickr